The German Federal Cartel Office has initiated proceedings against the German postal operatorDeutsche Post for allegedly hampering competition on the postal services market.
The Cartel Office launched the probe after it received complaints from independent mailservice providers.
“Deutsche Post has been accused of offering large customers prices for mail delivery that donot cover the costs,” Andreas Mundt, the president of the Federal Cartel Office said. “We are nowinvestigating whether Deutsche Post is trying to kick out competitors or keep them away from themarket. Should this suspicion substantiate itself, this could mean an abuse of its market-dominantposition.”
The Cartel Office explained that the discounted prices do not concern the postage ratesapproved by the Federal Network Agency that consumers or small and medium-sized companies pay forsending letters but refer to discounted prices for bulk shippers including banks, health insuranceand telecommunications companies.
Deutsche Post needs approval from the Federal Network Agency for postage prices for privatecustomers or small traders. However, it has the freedom to set the prices itself for majorcustomers. This means that a competitor can only make dumping allegations afterwards and seekinvestigations into the Deutsche Post rates for large customers. The investigation can beundertaken by the Federal Network Agency or the Cartel Office.
As part of the initiated proceedings, the Federal Cartel Office has sent questionnaires to anumber of such bulk shippers.
In response to the accusations, Deutsche Post spokesman Dirk Klasen told CEP-Research: “Sincethe proceedings have just started, we cannot say anything concrete regarding this matter for now.The Federal Cartel Office informed us yesterday about the start of the procedure. The FederalNetwork Agency already dealt with discounts for partial services several times in the past andafter a thorough examination confirmed the existing practice without restrictions.”
Recently, the Network Agency examined the Deutsche Post postage rates for bulk shipments. Itcriticised that the postal operator sent invoices as bulk mail and thus charged large customers alow price for this. This business practice has to be stopped by the end of the year, German mediareported.
